How YouTube became an internet video giant

With more than 500 hours of video uploaded every minute and more than one billion hours watched every day, Google’s YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine. And its meteoric growth hasn’t subsided. More than two billion users visit the site every month.

For Google’s parent company Alphabet, it represents a significant portion of its business. In 2019, YouTube generated $15 billion in revenue. It’s likely to surpass that this year with $12.89 billion in revenue so far, up about 24% from the same time last year.

While YouTube has dominated internet video and remains one of the top used streaming apps on mobile, it faces increasing competition. Steaming services like Netflix and Disney+, and social media apps like TikTok, are all vying for people’s attention.

CNBC takes a look at how the video platform has changed over the past 15 years and if it can stay on top.